Sudan blames Egypt for blocking international loans for Ethiopia’s hydro-dam

Egypt is threatening Sudan’s safety by blocking international loans for Ethiopia’s hydro-dam, said Sudan’s top official of Eastern Blue Nile State Hussein Ahmad. According to the Sudanese mp, cash-strapped Ethiopia will end up shortcutting the hydrodam construction to avoid rising costs which could lead to long-term structural issues for the dam and flooding.

The Blue Nile State is located at the Sudanese border directly by the western Ethiopian region where the GERD hydrodam is currently under construction. In a scenario where the dam collapses, analysts say Sudan’s Blue Nile State could be devastated with flooding.

The Sudanese official said “Egyptian racism toward Africa” played huge part in Egypt’s blocking of international financial aid to Ethiopia. He said Cairo cares more about control than safety since Egypt originally wanted to finance the Ethiopian dam itself. According to the SIS, Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy “offered to finance the construction of the Ethiopian Renaissance dam.”

The Sudanese official added that Khartoum will “hold Egypt fully responsible if structural failure of the dam results in Sudan’s flooding.”

He said Egypt should diversify its economy instead of total dependence on the Nile river shared by ten countries. ”No country opposed the construction of Egypt’s Aswan Dam even though that dam hurt the livelihood of indigeneous Nubian people and destroyed ancient artifacts,” he claimed. Read more

28 Responses

Thank u Sudan for standing with other African countries in the construction of the Dam. Egyptians are worried about controlling instead of the safety as the official indicated. Whether they like it or not the Dam will be built with the help of its people. Their sabotage will fail.

Financial constraints may cause optimization of design, compromize in safety factors. International funding agencies like WB or IMF are also unaccountable to their own core values as they lost integrity and professionalism.

Egyptian leaders are losing truck of Keeping the balance between national interest & the wider inevitable regional change that occure overtime.They seem to be unprepared to face the minimum neccessity with total disregard to the developing regional demand due to changing socio-economic realities beyond their territory. There is often a strong selfish desire among the Egyptian authorities to carry on the unjust & obsolete water policy adopted by their colonial masters which translate that Egypt too seeks to prosper & ensure its survival at the expense of the resources of their african brothers in the same way as their predecessor colonial power.

Egyptian leaders seems to have been running a risky venture that is likely to produce undesired outcome to both their own nation & the region in general. If they sit & recount soberly the relative benefit & losses of the GERD hydro dam under construction by Ethiopia, Egyptians will loss conclusively nothing in terms of volume of water share lest they avow to reduce. Despite strong scientific evidences provided by the steering engineering team as well as by honest Egyptian engineering proffesionals, some of the authorities and anti-peace elements within the administration circles are working day & night to halt the project from being viable. Where are we heading for? This seems the kind of battle between the good & the evil where the latter keeps fighting for indecent cause rather than virtues.
“Nothing will stop us!!”

supporting Ethiopia with regard Nile issue is a life saving for S.Sudan government. They have the right to have any kind of agreement with any country choose. However, there is a red line they may not be crossed over. That is making a military relation with our number one enemy, the arab republic of egypt. For S. Sudanees it is Ethiopia who supported them to become an independent country (although I do not support the idea of becoming an independent country) It is an old fashion, and beside this the socio-economic and other humanitarian indicators are not to the level where they can stand by themselves. Sorry to say this, but it is the reality! It is the push from the world powers that create this unfortunate situation.
What we African do not understand is that not always arming struggle bring peace or prosperity. Look a tiny country, Eritrea, and S.suda. What did all this arming struggle brought to the ordinary people? only Misery!and another human “God”,and killing each other. I think Ethiopian government should think critically what need to be done if S.Sudan failed to make peace as soon as possible. The reason, there are external actors,and the conflict could spill-over… create condition for our traditional enemy to involve in this situation.
The president of S.Sudan action indicating something unfavorable to us. He speak out now in support of us. But is it real or diplomatic acrobat? What about his opponent?Is he capable to handle things in order? Trained by whom in the 70’s? Not by the western powers to oppose John Gran? Where is the stand of Ethiopia? I prefer to be honest and neutral to bring peace for unfortunate S. Sudanees people.

This is the very reason why opponents say the project is not a well thought one. The dam is being constracted for political consumption and to enrich woyane officials and their corrupt friends.

What is unfortunate is the ppl of Ethiopia are made to shoulder the cost of this ill conceived and devilish project that aims to cripple the economy and subject the citizens to a long war and animosity with the Egyptians.

“The dam is being
constracted for political consumption and
to enrich woyane officials and their corrupt
friends.”

This is a rubish view & irrilevant statement having no worth of mentioning at this point of time. such divergent group or individual political view would ofcourse degrade our common noble cause for which all Ethiopians stand firm & united as one to pay the cost & to make history. If we realy love our country we should be able to cooperate in prompting national interest without regard to internal differences. If we don’t wish to do so again we must cooperate by refraining ourselves least from hindering public interests and/or being antagonistic towards it.

I stand with Egypt for their right to fight for the only source of potable water they have but that unfortunately originates from a beautiful country led by morons, airheads, egoists, selfish, uneducated, racist and thieves. I will join Egypt in the fight against these heyna face un-elected Ethiopian leaders and will do anything in my power as a proud Ethiopian to stop the construction of this cursed dam that is used to create false hope on the poor Ethiopian people by these racist and faithless leader. By doing so i know for sure that God, the whole “innocent and believer” Ethiopian people and the whole Egyptian people will stand by me.
Abay is 100% for the Egyptians and downstream living population and it is given to then by God. Ethiopians can only drink it, pray and sing for it as it has always been and will be a holy water!
PS: i don’t need bullshit comments if it is not in support of my opinion. Go Egypt and protect your right!

All I see from you is hate for Weyane, why you and your ansestors never done anything , kept us backward with no electric, no road and no development, also no education b/c you scared of Egypt . Are you really Ethiopian? This project will bring us together not what you wish for Ethiopia or Egypt . You and those few Egyptians are short minded like G-7, so rethink and contribute not you but your children can benefit from it, crying all the time weyane is not gone get you anywhere .

The dam the so called GERD will be completed by all Ethiopians who love Ethiopia and Ethiopians.
Currently the biggest enemy in Ethiopians mined is not Egypt or Eritrea but poverty.We Ethiopians are trying to eradicate poverty from our shoulder.poverty is national shame.
Egyptian elites whether they knock every single financial doors against Ethiopia and its people it is their craziness. While they built Aswan DAM nobody has claimed them surprisingly they never contribute zero drop of water. If the elite group still going on the same track the consequence will be stupid.
Under what so ever circumstance Abay dam will be constructed which is means of development and prosperity.
To all friends and enemies must be very clear that, Ethiopia has full right to utilize what so ever resources it endowed for its development and our neighborhood states for mutual advantages.

You Egyptian one thing you should know is that, the issue of GERD is the issue of the people and we are paying and will be paying what ever sacrifices needed for its construction we are waiting for its completion day and night you can not stop it by any means.

Well said, except pointing to ‘racism’, which has nothing to do with it unless for serving the absurd purpose Yuweri Moseveni of Uganda! Egypt’s rulers, of necessity, need to come to their good senses of win-win!

If there is one thing worse than not having the Dam is having it and something like GGII incident happen a month after a rebon cutting ceremony. The effect will be unthinkable degradation to Sudan, and rather than being a renesance dam to Ethiopia, it might as well be her funeral. Salini will face nothing less that what happened to mousolini at the end of WWII. So let us not even contemplate that there will be a reservoir fill up without all the technical issues having been ironed out, i’s dotted and t’s crossed. But this news raises the possibility of an opening with a compromised structural safety standards which should be alarming to all the news outlets.
——-
The news begs the question: who is to manage, cradle-to-grave the interest of all stake holders associated with this Dam? I am kind of very surprised at the “above it all” stance that Salini is taking to the
issues. Why is Salini held to a different standard than Airbus in addressing stake holder issues? Would Ethiopian Airlines be accountable for Airbus as much as EEPO is accountable for Salini’s Dam Design, Build and Release? I absolutely see no difference between the two, not even in the kinds of stakeholders that they adress. The difference is that Salini and the construction industry has not been held to the same standard as the manufacturing industry. nor has Salini, by the virtue of its size and experience hasn’t drafted a cradle-to-grave, phased and gated, concept, design, build, release and maintain standard procedure. As we speak, section 5 of the IPoE is dangling, not only with incomplete deliverables but a team missing to review it.
—–
It is alarming that Salini won’t give this project whAt fiat500 would receive! Shame on Salini!

Why take it out on Salini if the dam collapses? Ahiyawin ferto dawilawin !
TPLF led government structure’s lack of checks and balances is to be blamed more than anybody else for any failure that arised and will arise in Ethiopia. Rather than transforming it’s self into material prosperity TPLF need to work in transforming itself to follow the law. If the government had separation of power within itself it would be able to identify any problem before it blows up to a higher proportion. Lack of accountability is to be blamed for any problem including why Ethiopians can not even be able to become self-sufficient in feeding themselves. If TPLF checked the Eritreans that were operating under it’s umbrella we would not have sacrificed 50,000 + Ethiopians in the 1998-2000 Ethio/Eritrea war. If TPLF practiced accountability for it’s own actions Ethiopia would not have lost countless children to Arab mob, water drowning, human traffikers , hunger , suicide and so on. So if this dam collapses do not expect Ethiopians will blame Salini only and continue to buy bond for a dam to be built by another construction company while the whole countries resources is being abused by TPLF.

Some of your points abot TPLF/EPRDF are well taken. I agree that there is a by- default, unwritten tendency towards tyranny of the executive. Not that the executive just takes it, but parliament by default gives it to them and society by default accepts it. It is called undemocratic cultural conditioning that the media conditioned under the same culture hasn’t woken enough to challenge the norm! That said, I still remain firm, as far as the IPoE report shows that Salini has sort of taken the back seat rather than the driver of the process. It is obvious that it doesn’t have a cradle-to-grave, phased and gated program management tools. The report also tells of a weakness in document control. Keep in mind that at the end of the day, Salini and only Salini is the knowledge center and the director of the entire show. Of course EEPO has a shared accountability but in the end it is an end customer, a stake-holder amongs many that Salini on regular bases deals with. A good program management tool handles all stake holders, including international rivers at appropriate times. From what I sense in the report, If Salini has a provram management template then it is not one geared towards managing all stakeholder issues. Will it be acceptable if the washer you just bought had a brake malfunction and you the customer be held accountable for it? How about you dealing with an environmental agency regarding emission from your new car? The manufacturing industry takes all these into account and adresses all the issues before hand. Heck they even make financing available for you. All these nuances are held upfront by the project/program management tools. In comparison, the construction industry as demonstrated by the giant Salini is so PRIMITIVE that the CEO should throw himself off a bridge. That not forth coming, concentrated customers like EEOP should have a consultation with Salini and perhaps form a co-team to design a holistic template that will go across the board in future Dam projects.

Egyptian leaders are losing
truck of Keeping the balance
between national interest & the wider
regional inevitable change that occure
overtime.They seem to be unprepared to
face the minimum-neccessary with total
disregard to the changing socio-economic
realities beyond their territory.

There is often a strong selfish desire among the Egyptian authorities to carry on the unjust & obsolete water policy adopted by their colonial masters albeit Egypt
too seeks to prosper & ensure its survival
at the expense of the resources of their
african brothers in the same way their
predecessor colonial powers did.

Egyptian leaders seems to have been
running a risky venture that is likely to
produce undesired outcome to both their
own nation & the region in general. If they
sit & recount soberly the relative benefit &
losses of the GERD hydro dam, Egyptians will loss conclusively nothing in terms of volume of water share lest they avow to reduce.
Despite strong scientific evidences provided
by the steering engineering team as well as
by honest Egyptians & independent engineering proffesionals, some of the authorities and anti-peace elements within the administration circles are working day &
night to halt the project from being viable.

Where are we heading for? This seems the
kind of battle between the good & the evil
where the latter keeps fighting for indecent
cause rather than virtues.
“Nothing will stop us!!”

“The dam is being
constracted for political
consumption and
to enrich woyane officials and their corrupt
friends.”

This is a rubish view & irrilevant statement
having no worth of mentioning at this critical juncture. such divergent group or individual political view should remain within our own internal affairs or otherwise would degrade our common “noble” cause for which all Ethiopians collectively stand firm & united as one to pay the cost for the cause & to make history for the generation to come.
If we realy love our country we should be able to cooperate in prompting national interest without regard to internal differences. If we don’t wish to do so, again we must atleast cooperate by refraining ourselves from hindering public interests, as a good & responsible citizen.

IF WE HAD A FUNCTIONAL GOVERNMENT WE WOULD NOT HAVE NEEDED TO BORROW A CENT FROM ANYONE.

ETHIOPIA’S GOVERNMENT GOT A BUDGET OF $$$$$$$$$$ 8 BILLION DOLLARS FOR THE CURRENT YEAR.

OUT OF THIS $$$$$$$$$$ 8 BILLION DOLLARS,
3 $$$$$$$$$$ BILLION DOLLARS WAS FROM THE REMITTANCE THE DIASPORAS SENT BACK HOME.

$$$$$$$$$$ 4 BILLION DOLLARS WAS FROM THE DONORS GOVERNMENTS AID, MOSTLY WITH INSTRUCTIONS ON WHICH PART OF THE COUNTRY TO SPEND IT ON AND WHAT TO DO WITH THE MONEY . .

SO THE ETHIOPIAN GOVERNMENT GOVERNING 80 MILLION + PEOPLE PITCHED IN ONLY 1 $$$$$$$$$$ BILLION DOLLAR TO THE CURRENT BUDGET WHICH IS ALMOST NOTHING COMPARED TO WHAT THE PREVIOUS GOVERNMENTS USED TO RAISE WITH WAY MUCH LESS WORK FORCE , LESS FOREIGN AID AND LESS REMITTANCE.

ACCORDING TO THE ETHIOPIAN GOVERNMENT’S SPIES REPORTS, THE ETHIOPIAN PEOPLE ARE MOSTLY DISREGARDING THEIR OWN GOVERNMENT AND BEING GOVERNED BY SMALL VILLAGE LEADERS AND WAR LORDS.

“THE WARLORDS AND VILLAGE LEADERS ARE THE OBSTACLES FOR THE ETHIOPIAN GOVERNMENT TRANSFORMATION PLAN.THE ONES THAT WERE EXPECTED TO MOBILIZE THE PEOPLE FOR THE GOVERNMENT HAD FAILED COMPLETELY. EVEN IF THE PEOPLE WERE SEEN SHOUTING WE WILL MAKE MELES ZENAWI’S VISION BECOME POSSIBLE TIME AND TIME AGAIN, THEIR ACTION SHOWS THE VILLAGE LEADERS CHOSE TO KEEP THEIR OWN TO THEMSELVES DUE TO LACK OF SIGNS OF UNITING ACTIONS BY THE GOVERNMENT SO THE PEOPLE REGAIN FAITH IN THE ONE ETHIOPIA GOVERNMENT.

EVENTHOUGH THE GOVERNMENT TRIES TO PRESENT ITSELF AS IF THEY ARE IN FULL CONTROL OF THE COUNTRY THE FIGURES ARE ALARMINGLY SAYING OTHERWISE LEAVING THEM WITH NO CLUE ON HOW TO ADDRESS THE ISSUE.

What did you say Aklog Birara? What about the tax you are paying for the house u built in Ethiopia? Weregna yeESAT amuamuaki ye honk fitret. Anyway, GERD will be built by Ethiopians. You can shove your remittance in your a** if you want to. You are helping your poor family not Ethiopia. If you are talking about the BOND Ethiopia will not your money. 90 million people can contribute minus u. Munich a where did you get your calculations of this mathematics. I know, its from ESAT.

African Union should send one message to Egypt there are no a single African country left from independent of colony but the attitude of Nile not different than the colony of resource that should be send in one voice enough is enough!

That racism played a role in Egypt’s refusal to co-operate is not a wild imagination. The Sudanese top official statement that “Egyptian racism towards Africa” is the impetus for Egypt to sabotage Ethiopia’s getting international loan is right on the mark. I appreciate the official sincerity. It does not come easy for a Sudanese official to criticize an Egyptian government. The racism issue is dressed up with concern by Egypt. But if the source of the Nile happens to be Israel does the Egypt government behave the way it does now? Absolutely not. I am not a fan of the Ethiopian government. But on this issue because Ethiopians have — rightly or wrongly, you pick your choice– believed it is their right to have the dam build I stand with them. There are some who say EPDRF has managed to exploit the issue in order to divert Ethiopians’ anger of the government. That maybe true. But if Ethiopians feel it is their right to build the dam, the Ethiopian people’s wish to me override the EPDRF’ political calculation.

@ all who opposes the construction of GERD, the sons of Sha’abyan bitches and the color revolution activists
“The dam is being constructed for political consumption and to enrich woyane officials and their corrupt friends.”
Who cares about the tribe whoever uses Abay to unite Ethiopia, it doesn’t matter whether that person is either from Mekelle or Moyale; from Wallaga or Jigjiga; from Adwa or Dire Dawa…If Woyane prefer not to lay a hand on Abay and ignoring the Renaissance Dam, and instead develop only Tekeze; you would still blame them for being selfish as your political anatomy is opposing everything under the sun.